Danny's Phantom
by SilverScyther
Summary: Nobody wanted to watch the ghost of their dead son floating around, but the Fentons couldn't drive Danny away. The silent ghost refused to pass on instead he became a fixture in the home of ghost hunters.
1. Chapter 1

At first they tried to drive him away, nobody wanted to look at a ghost that resembled their dead son, least of a family of ghost hunters. However no matter what they did, even if his own parents attacked him, he would eventually wander back into the Fenton household. He never spoke, he didn't seem to possess the ability to do so. He was just a silent form that stayed in the house watching them and trying to do normal things which was difficult in his form.

He couldn't hold a tangible form for long so usually he couldn't interact with any objects, but occasionally with what looked like great focus he was able to pick up the TV remote and turn on a show. It was disturbing, but since he refused to leave they had to get used to him haunting them. It wasn't easy, but everyone found there own way to deal with the ghost of their son, Danny's phantom.

* * *

Jazz adjusted to it the most easily, though even for her it wasn't easy. She was unnerved by the quiet ghost, she'd learned that not every ghost was entirely evil from the many ghosts that frequented Amity park, but it didn't make it easy to have one hanging around. She tried to avoid him, but inevitably he'd gravitate to her and start watching her peacefully occasionally making a movement trying to say something she couldn't quite understand. Eventually she just let him have his own way and stopped trying to hide in her own house.

She was willing to let the white haired boy sit by her side in companionable silence while she read, allowing him to look over her shoulder. Much like the living Danny he would wrinkle his nose at whatever boring subject she was reading and roll his eyes when she tried to explain its importance.

The one sided conversations weren't as awkward as one might expect and she could almost forget he wasn't a living person until he slipped through something or floated away. Still she never turned him away if he came to her and though she tried to teach him sign language he never really took to it.

Her parents were much harder to convince to come around, they couldn't accept that their son had become a ghost and did everything in their power to make him leave. When nothing worked they, much like she did, attempted to staunchly avoid him, but his natural curiosity had him following them around when they worked. Although they never said it, Jazz knew the biggest problem was that they blamed themselves for Danny's death when he turned on the Fenton Portal. It was their design that killed him all because they made a mistake and he was a bit reckless.

Her mother finally broke when the ghost of Danny started to unconsciously become fully solid for short periods of time. His hair would turned black and his ectoplasmic green eyes reverted to their original shade of baby blue. The first time it happened he was going to the kitchen and unconsciously changed with no warning. Maddie yelled to him calling his name for the first time rather than, ghost. Much to everyone's surprise he didn't fade through the door he was walking to, instead he bumped into it, but by the time he fell he looked like a ghost again and sank through the floor. Nobody was sure what to make of it, Danny's ghost most of all. He kept staring at himself and touching things, which he would inevitably fade through.

The second time he was standing near his mother while she was trying to work on an experiment. She glanced over prepared to tell him off, but he had changed while she was looking away. To the naked eye it seemed her Danny was standing right next to her, despite the scientist in her telling her it was a ghost she grabbed him and dragged him into a hug which he silently returned. She could feel his body emitting heat and it felt exactly like the last hug she had given him while he was alive only hours before the accident. It didn't last long, only a few breaths before he was standing on the other side of her once again a ghost.

After that point she made a conscious effort to try to accept him as he was, but kept in mind that she was no longer dealing with her living son. He was something entirely different, but whatever he was, he was here to stay and she was going to live with that the best she could.

Jack finally came around the first time he saw the ghost cry. He came across Danny staring at the picture of himself while he still alive they kept as a small memorial. He was reaching out to touch it when he was interrupted by Jack's voice, "Don't touch my son, you ghost." Of course Jack knew the picture wasn't his real son, but it held the memory of him and he didn't want some copycat ghost touching it.

He felt himself pause when the ghost looked at him with tears streaking his face. Jack's first thought was that he was crying about his own death. That thought struck Jack that somewhere he already knew that the ghost was truly the ghost of his son even if he didn't want to accept it. "I'm sorry," he said to the ghost of his son not entirely sure why he was apologizing or what he was apologizing for. Danny looked over and nodded summoning up a small smile before silently walking away pausing to look at the photograph one last time.

Once the entire family had silently come to the agreement that they couldn't kick the ghost of their son out they decided it was time to tell his friends. Sam and Tucker blamed themselves for letting Danny die and were never able to enter the Fenton household after that day. However despite feeling the similar guilt Maddie and Jack dealt with, their reaction to Danny's ghost was entirely different.

Instead of denying that he existed or that he was their Danny, they latched on to the belief. They wanted to force their guilt away by seeing that Danny was still around, but in some ways it had the opposite effect. Seeing his smile when they found themselves in Fenton works was thrilling, but the fact that he wasn't truly alive and couldn't really speak to them made them feel terrible that they reduced him to this state.

They tried to tell him everything that had happened in school since he had disappeared focusing on only the positive things and telling funny stories. His silent laughter and bright smiles reassured them, but the guilt never really went away. They wanted to hide from the quiet ghost who constantly reminded them of their grave mistake, but leaving him alone would be worse so they forced themselves to go back and visit him occasionally. It wasn't the same, but eventually they too grew used to it and began to accept it. The pain never truly left, but they grew to like the ghost of their friend.

* * *

 **A/N**

OK, so that was either a short one shot of Danny's ghost returning after he died in the portal accident rather than becoming Danny Phantom or it was the first chapter of a story centered around Danny's ghost.

Please let me know what you thought, thanks for reading.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 1**

It began with a simple suggestion and a bout of curiosity, but that was all it took to kill a boy.

"Come on Danny check it out, maybe you can fix the portal or find some ghosts," Sam pushed the raven haired boy in the direction of the broken ghost portal. His parents had declared it a failure only moments ago and had already gone back upstairs, leaving the three teens alone.

"Yeah, dude, I bet you won't do it. You're probably secretly scared of ghosts," Tucker laughed while tapping at his PDA and Danny merely rolled his eyes in response. He grew up in a ghost hunting family he wasn't scared of ghosts, to be honest he wasn't entirely convinced they existed despite his parents belief.

"Fine, fine, I'll look in the portal. I'm not going to find anything, you heard my parents it doesn't work," even as Danny spoke he started to move towards the portal trying to appear confident. He wasn't really scared, but it was kind of creepy partly because it was a dark metal hole in the wall and partly because it was intended to enter the realm of ghosts.

He could hear footsteps on the on the stairs which meant either his parents or Jazz was coming down. He knew they would try to stop him if he didn't hurry so he skipped pulling on one of the Fenton jumpsuits. It was uncomfortable pulling them on over his clothes so he didn't see a point in wearing a suit if he was just looking inside.

He took his first step into the portal and although it felt a bit cold, mainly due to the metal he was touching there didn't seem to be anything unique. He trailed a hand along the side and called out to his friends, "I told you guys nothing was in here." Just before he turned to walk out his hand ran over a slight ridge, just for the sake of curiosity he pushed down on it.

The only warning he got was a green spark before electricity started racing through his body and ectoplasm was burned into his body. He was only able to scream for a second before the force of the portal launched him out. His heart stopped moments after he hit the lab floor and in that short time period the ectoplasm that had been forced into him melded with his very being. The majority of the ectoplasm left his body fading away as it shifted into a new shape gaining sentience in the process.

It essentially built a near perfect copy of Danny retaining most of his memories and traits. Danny died just as Phantom was born, but the odd union wasn't able to create an entirely ectoplasmic being. During their short coexistence they each took a small piece of each other. Although he was still human and certainly dead Danny had traces of ectoplasm in his blood and slightly twisted DNA. What he lost had been gifted to Phantom leaving him with some humanity underneath his new ghostly visage.

This birth went unnoticed by the people now in various stages in shock. Phantom remained invisible and stared at the still twitching form of his previous body. His mind was still coming together and processing his formation. He vaguely recognized his family rushing down the stairs and his friends crouched over his form yelling. His memories were slowly floating into place, but he needed time to become a whole being.

What he did understand was that he didn't like the screaming and crying so without much thought he floated upstairs completely ignored. He wasn't sure what to do with himself so he simply floated around watching paramedics rush into the house. Although he wasn't complete physically or mentally he still felt a stirring of something like sadness.

In the days that followed the gloom and despair that seemed to permeate Fenton Works was enough to keep a family of ghost hunters from noticing a ghost following them around. He was still too weak to actually interact with the world, all he could do was passively view it. By the day of the funeral he had visited the world outside his home, but again he went unseen aside from a few animals that didn't seem pleased at the ghost moving amongst them in the park.

He had learned how to fly rather than just float aimlessly a few days after his death, but he still ended up sitting in the limousine riding to his funeral. He sat silently watching his family cry, unable to comfort them, not that he knew how.

Throughout the entire ceremony nobody saw the white haired boy in burnt clothing standing next to the casket, silently wishing he'd wake up alive.

* * *

 **A/N**

 **Hello Everyone, thanks to all the kind reviews I received and the interest this story seemed to attract I decided to try my hand at making this a full story. I had to move backwards a bit to explain what happened so the first few chapters are essentially going to be fleshing out the opening and setting up the rest of the story. Then the story will take its own direction, but I don't plan on removing the opening even if there is some overlap because I quite like it.**

 **I did my best to create a somewhat plausible reason for Phantom to exist beyond him simply being the ghost of Danny who just appeared randomly. This unique form of 'birth' for his ghost will be a major part of the story and will be expanded on.**

 **I'm sorry this chapter was rather short, but it's a prologue I expect the following chapters will be longer.**

 **Please let me know what you think, it means a lot.**


	3. Chapter 3

Phantom was growing used to his existence, whatever it may be. It wasn't until a week after the burial had taken place that he was first noticed, though it was completely by accident. Nobody had really been able to work up the nerve to go back to the lab after the accident aside from the one who had been recently 'born' there.

Jack and Maddie Fenton weren't bad parents, but they could occasionally be absent minded and oblivious, Jack more so than his wife. They never really considered the danger of studying paranormal beings in a home with children. It wasn't until their son was dead that they were finally able to look at the lasers and explosives in their basement and realize that just telling their kids not to touch wasn't enough to keep them safe. After a week the two decided they were done with ghosts for the conceivable future and made their way to the lab to start clearing things out. Just approaching the place of their son's recent passing was painful, but they suffered through. Each breath was heavy, but they knew what to expect once they made it down and that sense of familiarity made it simultaneously easier and more difficult.

Phantom had taken to visiting the place where he died quite often because he didn't have much else to do. His memories were still finding their way into place so flying around the city felt odd, he felt like he was in a constant state of nostalgia somehow coupled with déjà vu. He was currently looking at the portal, he kept feeling drawn to it. His attention was captured by a sound which was slowly growing louder. He turned his head and saw his parents stepping down the stairs like the weight of the world was on their shoulders.

They didn't speak, they merely started picking up the equipment laying across the tables and placing them in metal lined boxes, until one started beeping. "Fenton ghost finder activated, a ghost is near," a smooth robotic female voice called out shocking all three occupants of the room. Phantom could see a spark of excitement appear in his father's eyes, but it dimmed.

"Jack, the ghost detector is going off, it's never actually worked before," Maddie ever the scientist started looking at the device with curiosity, but she too sagged as she returned to the mindset of a grieving mother.

"It's probably a glitch and it doesn't matter," Jack mumbled letting his arm droop. Phantom took it upon himself to approach the increasingly insistent beeping device. Eventually he reached out to touch it and was surprised when he actually came into physical contact with the device rather than floating through it. He received a shock when the machine shorted out and unbeknownst to him he finally became visible at the same moment he became tangible.

His father started sputtering something at a speed to quick for Phantom to understand and his mother grabbed a nearby ecto-gun while she hyperventilated. "What are you?" She asked in a harsh tone her hand on the trigger.

Phantom didn't answer, not by choice, but because he found he could produce no noise. Instead he settled for shrugging far less afraid of the weapons than a normal ghost would have been. On some level he still believed they were his parents and that they wouldn't hurt him. That thought was refuted when Jack got over his shock and grabbed a bazooka and started charging it up.

Once the big gun was leveled at his head, Danny felt something he hadn't felt since waking up the first prickles of fear. That emotion quickly resulted in him becoming invisible and sinking through the floor before either Fenton adult could react. He flew up and away while they continued to look for him and he only landed when he was in Jazz's room.

She must have heard his feet on her carpet because she spun around coming face to face with Phantom who stared at her with curiosity. "Danny," she whispered before apparently coming to her senses and jumping away. "No, you can't be." Although his features and body structure matched the colors were thrown off. His hair was pure white rather than raven and his eyes were acidic green instead of baby blue. She also noted the burned clothes he was wearing, but fear was starting to take over her more rational thoughts.

Phantom just held his hands up in a conciliatory manner, at least she wasn't threatening to kill him. She looked scared, but when he made no moves to attack her she seemed to calm down a little bit.

"So what are you?" She asked looking him over keeping her distance. He could only gesture in response, still not possessing the power to speak.

"Are you Danny?" Jazz asked slowly.

Phantom nodded yes, but then shook his head no. He shrugged and made a gesture that was supposed to mean that he was partially Danny.

"You're Danny's ghost?" Jazz sounded horrified at the thought.

He gave her a thumbs up and waited for her response, but he didn't expect her to start crying. Somehow the sight made him want to cry as well, instead he tried to comfort her by patting her back. His arm ended up sliding through her and the loss of balance landed him on the floor. She looked at his fallen form and laughed through her tears. He gave her an identical glare to the one her brother would have given her for laughing at him and somehow in that moment she truly felt this ghost was her little brother.

Before they could say anything else her parents ran of the stairs and threw her door open, "There's an ectoplasmic monster in the house, be on your guard Jazzy pants."

Of course the sight he walked in on was Phantom standing next to Jazz both staring at him in surprise. Jack raised his gun and pointed it at Phantom ready to destroy the ghost skulking in his house. In one fluid movement Jazz moved in front of Phantom and stared down her parents, "He hasn't done anything wrong, leave him alone. Don't you recognize your own son?"

Phantom peeked his head out to look at his parents who were glaring at him. "Jazz he's a ghost he's tricking you, don't you see?" Maddie asked trying to appeal to her.

"Why would a ghost randomly appear right after Danny's death, when we haven't seen one in the past ever?" Jazz asked her parents who hadn't really thought over his appearance, preferring to focus on the fact that a ghost existed.

"It doesn't matter, that thing isn't our son and I won't lose another child because of ghosts," Jack was starting to yell.

"Ghosts didn't kill Danny, your stupid ghost inventions killed him. Now a piece of him is still around and you want to finish the job, that's horrible," Jazz rose her voice to match her father's. Jazz almost never yelled so that in it of itself was surprising and the fact that she was doing it to protect a ghost was almost inconceivable to her parents.

Maddie sounded sad and a bit worried when she started speaking, "Look, Jazz we-

"Danny just run," Jazz turned to the ghost who had watched the exchange feeling horrible, he nodded and jumped out the window. He just managed to catch Jazz whisper, "Oh, little brother what's happened to you?"

* * *

 **A/N**

 **Chapter 3 is complete.**

 **At first I didn't really like this chapter, but I put it through some edits and added a bit and decided that I'm happy with it. This one finally introduces Phantom to his family, I know it seems like Jazz accepted Danny being a ghost fairly quickly, but she did the same in the show and she still has her doubts which will be explored. Obviously the ghost hunting parents are going to be hard sells. I liked the fight at the end it was a bit depressing and showed the resentment Jazz had towards her parents who she unconsciously blamed in part for the accident.**

 **I hope you enjoyed it, please let me know what you thought and thanks for reading.**


	4. Chapter 4

As Phantom drifted away from his home the sound of yelling faded away and he was alone again. He hadn't been touched, but he could feel a type of pain building inside himself somewhere in his chest, he briefly recalled a word 'heartbreaking', but he forgot it just as quickly. The next few hours were spent much as he had spent his other days trying to sort through his memories and learning about the living world around him. By the time night rolled around he still hadn't returned home, instead he was lying prone in the sky staring at the stars. He quickly discovered his fascination with space, but knew he'd never be able to reach the stars even with his ability to fly. It was just another thing that was out of his reach something he couldn't quite grasp.

Despite the horrible events that occurred just hours ago he still felt drawn back to his home and chose not to fight his compulsion. He flew slowly spending time to look deep into the night sky hoping for answers of his existence. The stars did nothing but shine, he wondered which stars out there were dead like him simply showing him their bright smiles from millions of years ago. The line of thought faded from his mind and he returned to absently flying.

Eventually he arrived at his former home and floated in to a very tense atmosphere, though he couldn't quite sense it. He did however notice when a blaring ghost alarm went off and his parents stormed into the kitchen decked out in their ghost hunting gear. Jazz trailed after them trying to calm them down, but it seemed a lost cause as they looked for the ghostly intruder.

Their eyes skirted over an invisible Phantom who wasn't entirely sure what he was meant to do. Even though his most complex skills were still redeveloping and he had trouble focusing for too long he wasn't oblivious to the danger surrounding him. The pseudo standoff lasted for a few minutes before Jack started trying to call the ghost out, "Come on ghost face me."

Phantom had gained fairly decent control over his basic powers so he allowed his invisibility to slip away and kept his hands up in a position as if to say he meant no harm. "There you are you ectoplasmic scum," Jack immediately raised his bazooka, but again Jazz stepped in to stop the fight that was bound to break out.

"He doesn't want to fight can't you guys just be calm?" Jazz asked sounding somwhere between angry and desperate. She felt her brother was staring back at her and she couldn't ignore the possibility that he was in there somewhere. If that were true letting him be destroyed wasn't something she could allow without hating herself in the future.

"Sweetie, he's a ghost he's just trying to trick us we can't let our guard down," Maddie answered calmly, her eyes never leaving Phantom as she spoke. Before Jazz could retort Jack finally fired his bazooka letting loose a blast that Phantom barely managed to dodge. Phantom relied almost entirely on instinct as he moved around the house dodging and running without trying to fight back. His memories helped him navigate the home and his intangibility allowed him to slide through any obstacles he encountered.

The blasts destroyed things around him and more than once he was nearly caught in a net, he didn't want to be hurt or dissected so he continued to move not wanting to find out what would happen if he paused for even a moment.

Eventually Jack had to stop out of pure exhaustion, but Maddie continued to hunt Phantom eventually managing to corner him in the basement. Phantom tried to sink down though the floor, but nothing happened giving Maddie the opportunity she needed to finally hit Phantom. He hadn't realized the alarm that had gone off at Phantoms entrance also activated a thin coating in the walls, floors, and roof preventing him from going through them. The blast struck him in the chest and launched him across the room, he landed in a heap in front of the ghost portal in almost the same position the Fentons had recently found their deceased son.

The sight of Phantom looking up at her from the ground his features twisted in fear, features that so resembled her son's, paused her in shock more than anything else. Phantom took advantage of her surprise to fly past her out of the basement, he was able to escape the home, his home, simply because he found an open window in Jazz's room that had been closed earlier. Jack had followed him and shot a few blasts out the window, but it ultimately was to no avail and Phantom escaped without further injury.

Now that he wasn't running for his life, if it could be called that, Phantom could finally feel the physical pain of the ecto-burn on his chest. The pain flared up when he tried to touch it so he chose to let it heal on its own hoping it would get better without aid. With nothing else to do he stared at the stars trying to forget the hatred on the faces of the people he still considered his family. The only mission he had left was trying to regain their acceptance, he wasn't sure what else he could do.

Allowing himself time to heal he closed his eyes and tried to let his mind relax and slip into sleep, something he hadn't yet indulged in. The last thing he saw were the stars and the last thing he thought about was his family before falling into the darkness.

* * *

 **A/N**

Okay I basically took off from writing for the summer so I apologize for not posting any chapters over that period of time. This particular chapter was a bit shorter than I hoped, but I wasn't going to drag out the ghost hunt for no reason or try to add filler to lengthen it. All the star references were because of Danny's want to be an astronaut to show that Phantom has some of the same inherent interests though he's looking at things in a different way, simpler, but almost more mature without any dreams of being an astronaut.

I know I keep saying that Phantom is still sorting things out in his mind, but that's because I don't intend for Phantom to become Danny with the only difference being his death. I want him to retain his memories, but view some things from a different perspective.

Thanks for reading and please let me know what you think.


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